1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to afterburners and more particularly to an upright secondary incinerator for use with primary combustion devices, such as incinerators or industrial flues.
Air pollution has become a major health problem in most larger metropolitan areas primarily as a result of inefficient burning of fuel or waste in primary combustion chambers. This inefficient burning results in large quantities of hydrocarbons suspended in the exhaust gases or smoke as well as larger particles which remains suspended in the atmosphere and in some instances settles out on buildings, or the like, in the form of soot. Various attempts have been made to eliminate this air pollution such as by utilizing an electrostatic type smoke eliminator for large flues which are intended to remove particles of carbon from the smoke stream, however, such devices are relatively expensive and require frequent maintenance to maintain their efficiency. Other attempts have been made to provide secondary burners to continue the combustion of exhaust gases but these devices, for the most part, have not been generally accepted. One of the reasons being that to attain efficient burning of exhaust gases it is necessary that the temperature of the gases be elevated to a combustion temperature and mixed with additional air to initiate and continue the afterburning.
This invention provides a novel smoke stream heating means including a combustion chamber supplied with a large quantity of additional combustion air which is added to the smoke stream as it moves through the combustion chamber.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The most pertinent prior patent is U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,165.
The principal distinction of this invention over this patent is the manner of increasing the temperature of flue gases to a combustion temperature while adding additional air to support combustion in combination with refractory material maintaining combustion.